Gee, ya think?
Insurance claims.
Vinnie the torch is in town
French lightning?
Insurance? Here when a bar on the line burned down it was believed by the locals to be for the insurance.
I was going to say Religion of Peace, but your explanation seems much more plausible.
They finally got sick of the smell?
Leased and highly leveraged cars next.
In 1997 the Red River flooded Grand Forks North Dakota and most of the business owners didn’t have flood insurance so, mysteriously, there were a lot of fires starting in a flooded downtown.
We used to call those “Friction Fires”. It’s when the insurance policy rubs up against the mortgage.
It is clearly due to the owners cashing in their fire insurance because their business is closed and likely not solvent anytime soon. This was common practice for night clubs and mob restaurants in large US cities like New York and Kansas City before air conditioning. They were too hot during the summer so they would close their doors and burn the club down. The insurance money would be used to remodel the club just in time for the fall reopening. The insurance premiums were very high but the companies were actually mob fronts that skimmed the premiums on the front end and sold the policies to large underwriters who didn’t ask questions.
“How do you start a flood???”
Sounds like an old joke, the punchline of which is:
“How do you start a flood?”
Somewhat like the odd rash of bar (tavern) fires we had around here 35-38 or so years ago.
About five small-town and semi-rural bars within a six mile radius burned down after hours over a two year period, all owned by different people.
Those were the days when we were still a free country and smoking was allowed in bars, so it could easily be blamed on a hot butt in the ashtray dumped in the trash can by the bartender at closing time.
None of those bars, which were all profitable as far as anyone knew, were rebuilt, and the properties are still empty lots to this day.
Duh...
We have a winner. Who would have thought that closing a business that rely 100% on people walking in the door and buying things for a month would cause financial problems.
Yeah....the only thing left in those Restaurants that could be served is Pate’ de FIRE gras.
In France it’s a fire named Islam...
Ancient Chinese Secret™